The present invention relates to a system which integrates a standard telephonic type communication device, a cellular-type wireless service, a cellular interface system such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,096, issued Apr. 14, 1987 to West et al., existing telephone wiring installed within a building, and a telephone company wireline service. In particular, the standard telephonic type communication device, when connected to the invention, is capable of selectively both receiving and initiating calls over the cellular type wireless service as well as also both receiving and initiating calls over the telephone company wireline service.
Known cellular interface products such as the Telular Phonecell(trademark), PCSone(trademark), of Telular Corporation, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, and competing products from other companies, had difficulty in being connected to one or more telephone extensions located in other areas of a building remote from the interface. The Telular PCSone(trademark) System shown pictorially in FIG. 1, is a combination charging circuit and docking station for hand-held cellular transceivers such as the Motorola MICRO-TAC transceiver which allows the coupling of a standard telephone type communication device, such as a facsimile, modem, plain old telephone (POT) or any other device that would normally be coupled to a standard telephone wall jack. Connection of more than one telephone extension at separate locations within the building disadvantageously required that separate wiring be installed in the building or required a trained installer to rewire the existing installed telephone wiring of a building, often with unsatisfactory results. After this installation or rewiring effort, two single line standard telephones were necessary to access both the telephone company and cellular-type service (cellular). A two line telephone would be required if a single instrument would be used to access both the telephone company (telco) wireline service as well as the cellular interface line. When an incoming or outgoing call would occur, there was often confusion as to whether the telco service or the cellular service was being accessed.
In addition, with the known cellular interface a consumer often made a mistake in the installation of this type of product by not reading the manual and incorrectly plugging the cellular interface directly into the telco service line. This was in violation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Part 68 rules and invited possible damage to the cellular interface and to the telco equipment. Known cellular interfaces were difficult to be installed by individuals possessing no technical knowledge of electricity or of the telephone system. Each building is different as to whether it has telco line 1 wiring installed, telco line 2 wiring installed, wiring shorts between wires on telco line 1 or line 2, an active Telco line 1, or an active Telco line 2. Because of all these variables, there was difficulty for the consumer to effectively and consistently be able to properly install a known cellular interface in a dwelling without a large number of consumer problems, and perhaps significant numbers of damaged cellular interface devices. Prior art interfaces lacked adaptive intelligence and system diagnostics to sense the unique environment into which it was installed and properly react to it. Although prior art cellular interfaces allowed a standard telephonic type communication device to be connected to cellular service, prior art interfaces disadvantageously did not allow a standard telephonic type communication device to be selectively switched between wireline and cellular service. Prior art interfaces had no provision for connection to a wireline telephone company service.
This invention is directed at solving these and other disadvantages of the prior art.
An object of the invention is to allow a facility, normally wired for a single telephone line from the wireline telephone company, to become a two-line facility, with the second line coupled to a wireless communication system and remain fully compatible with all FCC Part 68 devices, including standard telephones, (both, single and double line), facsimile devices, alarm systems and modems.
Another object of the invention is to allow a consumer without any tools or knowledge of a telephone system to use the invention by easily allowing him to use his standard house telephone wiring and add a cellular communication capability as an additional line to his current system without improperly coupling an active device to a landline telephone outlet.
Accordingly, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a telephonic communication system having at least one communication device for interconnection with a telephone network via at least two communication media, the improvement comprising means for coupling the at least one communication device with the at least two communication media, and means for individually determining the availability of each of the at least two communication media, and means responsive to the determining means connected to the coupling means for automatically interconnecting the at least one communication device with the telephone network via the available one of the communication media.
In accordance with another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a communication system having first and second communication paths and at least one telephonic type communication device, the system being coupled to at least two communication networks for providing a first and second means of communication, said first means of communication coupled to the first communication path, and the communication system having at least one means for coupling the at least one telephonic communication type device to said first communication path, the improvement being means between said at least one telephonic type communication device and said coupling means for connecting said telephonic type communication device to said second communication path, and switching means coupled to said second communication path and to said first and second means of communication for selectively coupling said second communication path to one of said first and second means of communication.
In accordance with yet another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a communication system having a communication path and at least one telephonic type communication device, the communication system being coupled to a communication network for providing a means of communication, and the communication system having at least one telephonic communication type device coupled to said communication path, the improvement being testing means coupled to said communication path for testing the presence of any signal thereon, and interface means coupled to said communication path and said testing means and being responsive to said testing means for coupling said communication path to said communication network.
In accordance with still another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a communication system comprising a cellular type interface coupled between a cellular-type transceiver and a six position wall jack coupling means with at least four positions having individual conductors coupled thereto, a telephonic type device coupled to at least two of said individual conductors, and means coupled between said telephonic type device and said six position telephone jack coupling means for inverting the position of at least two of said individual conductors to the position of two of the other individual conductors.